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Kroes on the cutting edge

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

5/26/10, 9:01 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 9:03 PM CET

Commissioner’s unusual response to questions about her future.

The VVD, the bigger of the Dutch liberal parties, is doing well in the national election campaign, with opinion polls suggesting that it might be the biggest party in the parliament after the 9 June election. So the possibility arises that for the first time in 100 years the VVD would provide the country’s prime minister.

That has given rise to speculation as to whether Neelie Kroes, the country’s European commissioner, might return to Dutch politics. Last week Kroes responded to the speculation with a metaphor not entirely in keeping with her role as the commissioner at the cutting edge of the digital agenda: “We moeten de huid niet verkopen voor de beer is geschoten.” (“We shouldn’t sell the fur before the bear is shot.”)

Of course this inability to cope with a rudimentary futures market may explain why the Dutch fur-trading colony of Nieuw-Nederland ended in 1667 and New Amsterdam was renamed New York.